COTES Visits European State-of-the-Art CFB Power Units

The goal of the tour was to study the experience of designing and construction of coal- and biomass fired power units with CFB boilers and the present-day technologies.
The experts from COTES consider CFB technology as very promising for implementation in the energy sector of Russia and Kazakhstan as it enables higher technical and economic efficiency of a unit operation (including ultra supercritical steam conditions) and improves the environmental performance of power plants to the level of European emission requirements.
COTES specialists were especially interested in the foreign experience in construction and operation of large CFB power units firing high-ash and low-grade coal with high technological-and-economic and environmental efficiency.
In the course of the tour, the specialists of the company visited Kaukaan Voima power plant in the city of Lappeenranta (Finland). The power plant is one of the brand-new and largest CFB projects of Foster Wheeler company. Rated capacity of the CFB boiler is 125MW, steam pressure is 115 bars at 550°C. The boiler was put in operation on February 22, 2010. The main fuel is wood-based biomass. The specialists of the company acquainted themselves with the technology in action and noted nearly absence of personnel at the plant. A high level of automation makes it possible to control the power unit from a remote control panel.      
COTES also visited Łagisza power plant (Katowice, Poland) where in the end of 2009 the world's largest pulverized-coal fired CFB boiler at 460 MWe and the world's first once-through unit (OTU) supercritical CFB boiler was put in operation. Steam conditions in the given once-through technology are 4000 psia (27,6 МPa), 565/580°С with power efficiency of the plant – 41.6%.
Finally, COTES specialists visited the manufacturing capacities of Foster Wheeler Energy Fakop in Sosnowiec city and studied the manufacturing process of gas-tight boiler walls.